Year of No Light, Sannhet, Gnaw, Vilkacis @ Saint Vitus
France's Year of No Light have been making very high quality instrumental post-metal since their 2006 debut, yet in all those years they never played the US. That's finally changing on their current tour, which is now in NYC and concludes a two-night run at Saint Vitus tonight. Like last night, the show begins with three killer artists in NYC's experimental metal scene.

Caribou, Jessy Lanza @ Webster HallOur Love, Caribou's recent followup to 2010's excellent Swim, is less focused on the pop songs that album was, and instead heavier on the electronics and great in its own way. Tonight's his second of two NYC shows on his tour with Our Love collaborator/Hyperdub-signed Jessy Lanza.

Johnny Marr, Meredith Sheldon @ Stone Pony
Recalling his prolific days with The Smiths, Johnny Marr has banged out two albums in a year's time. They're not at his 1985 peak, but they're not bad either. He's a lot of fun live, and peppers hit sets with oldies -- any chance to see him play "The Headmaster Ritual" is worth considering. Unlike his two sold-out NYC shows, tickets are still available to this.

Say Hi, Tim Foljahn @ Mercury Lounge
Seattle's Eric Elbogen is still making quality indie pop under the Say Hi moniker which hasn't changed too much since the mid-2000s, and not in a bad way. Opening this show is Michigan's Tim Foljahn, who's been playing since the '80s and was once in a band with fellow Michigan musician Steve Shelley.

O'Death, Death Vessel, Stone Jack Jones @ Bell House
O'Death's new album is dark and super raw folk that fits their name well. Death Vessel on the other hand may share a name with "death" in it but he makes much more uplifting music. And another dark songwriter, Stone Jack Jones, opens the night. Should be a good show all around.

TEEN @ Apple Store Soho
Part of the Apple store's "meet the musicians" series, TEEN will perform live followed by a Q&A with rock journalist Michael Azerrad. Free, 7:30 PM.

The Rural Alberta Advantage, July Talk @ Bowery Ballroom
The Rural Alberta Advantage's anthemic and folky indie rock is in fine form on their new album, Mended with Gold. Tonight their tour with fellow big-sounding Canadian band July Talk hits Bowery Ballroom for its second of two shows at the venue this week.

Animal Collective (DJ set) @ Brooklyn Bowl
While Panda Bear has a new solo record on the way, the other three AnCo guys are taking the chance to go on this DJ tour which hits Brooklyn Bowl again tonight. The tour returns to the same venue in December too (but without Avey Tare).

Dustin Wong, Takako Minekawa, Ricky Eat Acid, Tristan Allen, Trabajo @ Palisades
Former Ponytail guitarist Dustin Wong moved back to his childhood home of Japan after completing his trilogy of loop-based albums and began collaborating with musician Takako Minekawa. Using a specially designed interface that allows them to switch from guitar to keyboards to sampler to vocals, their music is creative and playful. The duo's second album together, Savage Imagination, came out via Thrill Jockey in September.

Blockhead, Elaquent, Muneshine @ Glasslands
In addition to producing a significant amount of Aesop Rock's material (and other likeminded rappers like Cage, Open Mike Eagle and Murs), Blockhead has a ton of solo material including this year's Bells and Whistles LP.

Suzanne Vega @ Joe's Pub
She may be be best known for "Luka" and "Tom's Diner" (both from 1987's Solitude Standing) but Suzanne Vega's gift for songwriting has continued since. She plays an early and a a late show tonight.

Seu Jorge @ Blue Note
Best known here in America for acting in City of God and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (which he scored using only acoustic, Portuguese David Bowie covers), but Brazilian artist Seu Jorge has been making music since the '90s. This is part of his eight-night run at the Blue Note.

Phil Lesh @ Capitol Theatre
As any Deadhead can tell you, Phil Lesh plays the favorites and his current band does it well. It's another night of his never-ending residency at The Cap, and these shows are always a good time.

The Out in the Streets Festival is back for a second year, happening again at Ridgewood's Vander-Ende Onderdonk House on July 26 & 27. Bands this year include A Place to Bury Strangers, Body Language, Cities Aviv, Hunters, Ski Lodge, Honduras, Weyes Blood and more. In addition to the music, there will be art, food vendors and a giant slip-n-slide. Two-day passes are currently on early bird discount. All announced 2014 performers are listed below....

LA's Jail Weddings just made a video for "Dead Celebrity Party" off last year's Neurotic Yell/Burger-released Meltdown - A Declaration of Unpopular Emotion. The song is big, jangly pop rock, and staying true to the song's title, its video mocks the opening credits of old movies/TV shows and "stars" Janis Joplin, Keith Moon, Andy Warhol, Nico, Aubrey Hepburn, Jesus Christ, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and more. The video premieres in this post and can be watched below.

Jail Weddings also have an upcoming tour that includes two NYC shows: Cake Shop on June 20 with Earl Boykins and more TBA; and Baby's All Right on June 21 with Chappo, Tiny Victories and Canon Logic. Tickets for the Baby's show are on sale now. No advance tix for Cake Shop.

The last time Oklahoma's Colourmusic were supposed to play NYC was right after Hurricane Sandy and that show, like everything else in lower Manhattan, was canceled due to no power. The band are returning to NYC for a one-off show at Pianos on Monday (729), an early set (8 PM) on a bill that also features Stout Cortez, Brothertiger, Tiny Victories and Shook Foil. Advance tickets are on sale.

I caught Colourmusic at SXSW 2012 and was pretty impressed: "Stillwater's Colourmusic lay down some awesome Can-style prog, made extra heavy with two bassists. Flaming Lips, early-'90s psych influence casts a shadow on them too." You can stream 2011's My ______ Is Pink via Spotify. The band's new album is finished and will be out in early 2014.

Progressive pop cult The Polyphonic Spree have a bunch of festival dates scheduled for this spring/summer and they'll also be touring around those fests, playing a number of club dates throughout the US. Those dates include NYC shows happening on July 9 at Music Hall of WIlliamsburg and July 10 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for those shows go on sale Friday (5/3) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (5/1) at noon.

The Polyphonic Spree were also among the recent additions to this year's Bonnaroo lineup. Other additions include Solange, White Lung, Mac DeMarco, Black Prairie, Maps & Atlases, Royal Thunder, William Tyler, Cat Martino, On An On, Bilal and more. 4-Day passes for the festival are still available.

All Polyphonic Spree dates are listed, along with a full list of the Bonnaroo lineup additions and a video of the Polyphonic Spree covering Nirvana's "Lithium" at our BV-SXSW day party (one of our greatest moments at SXSW this year), below...

As you may remember, On An On are in NYC this week, playing shows in support of their enjoyable debut album, Give In, which came out last week. You can stream it below where you'll also find their their new video for "The Hunter" which features youth gone wild and a fair amount of pyrotechnics.

In addition to the previously-announced dates at Mercury Lounge on Wednesday (2/6, tix) with Field Mouse and Glasslands on Thursday (2/6, tix) with Tiny Victories and Young Heel, On An On have added a show on Friday (2/8) at Rodrigue's Coffee House at Fordam University campus in the Bronx with The Shockwaves and Hattrick (info).

If you can't make it to any of their NYC shows this week, On An On will be back this summer at Governors Ball. All tour dates are listed below.

Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing spent the better part of the Oughts as three-fifths of Chicago-based Scattered Trees. The band were gearing up to record their fourth album, booking time with producer Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene's You Forgot it In People) when... the band broke up. Instead of canceling the studio time, the three of them soldiered on, started from scratch as a new group, On An On.

The results of that can be heard on On An On's debut album, Give In, which comes out January 29 on Roll Call Records in North America and City Slang in the UK. The trio's blend of organic and synthetic sounds is heartfelt, warm and infectious (and maybe a little spooky), giving a good name to "mid-tempo." You can download the album's lead track, "Ghosts," at the top of this post or stream it below, along with the song's video.

On An On are currently on a West Coast/Southwest tour with Geographer but will be heading East for two NYC shows next month: February 6 at Mercury Lounge (tickets) and February 7 at Glasslands with Tiny Victories and Young Heel (tickets).

All tour dates are listed below, along with the "Ghosts" song stream and video.

Fucked Up just finished playing Warsaw, a one-off show here in NYC. Well, turns out it was a two-off, as the Toronto band are the secret headliner's at Saturday night's (12/22) grand finale of Brooklyn Night Bazaar in Williamsburg. You may remember Fucked Up played Brooklyn Night Bazaar last year, headlining the night BrooklynVegan curated. Saturday's show is all ages, totally free, and open to the public. Other bands on the Gothamist-presented bill are Tiny Victories, Dan Friel, Dead Stars, and Screamin' Rebel Angels. This weekend's pop-up restaurant on the mezzanine is by Bushwick locavore pizza folk Roberta's.

The Bazaar has been operating at one-in, one-out capacity for most of their weekends and though lines have moved at a steady gate, FU is definitely the biggest band to play there this year, so get there early. Doors are at 6 PM, bands start around 6:30. Again, it's FREE.

The Pianos show is part of a 2-floor, free party that also includes downstairs sets by St. Lucia (part of their February residency at the LES venue) and Tiny Victories, and upstairs music by MNDR (DJ set), Make Out & Psychobuildings. Flyer below.

Devin's debut LP, Romancing, is out on April 10th, via Frenckiss who also released his 3-song EP at the end of 2011. The full album tracklist and all tour dates are below...

Though Northside summoned a number of my favorite artists to town, the CMJ line-up was rather thin by comparison, so I made it my goal to catch as many new acts as possible this year. With help from BV's tightly scheduled day parties, I managed to squeeze in 46 bands. While it's all still fresh in my mind (ie, before I spend the next week hibernating), here's a recap of my week, complete with my favorite finds...

I kicked things off with trance-inducing, one-man knob twittler Sun Glitters. Figuring out how to bring life to headphone-friendly, sample-heavy music in a live audience setting can be a challenge, but the few I saw this week (Million Young, Chad Valley and Luxembourg's Sun Glitters included) were decent.

If last year was the age of the one-man laptop act, 2011 was rife with lo-fi, synth/guitar-heavy (mostly) male groups cloaked in reverb. Each band had its strengths: Sunglasses (great energy on stage), Gauntlet Hair, Guards (perfectly summed up the sound of the moment), 1,2,3, Balkans (nice balance of in-your-face guitars and sunnily-swaggering vox), Tiny Victories. But after a while, I confess they all started to blend together--especially since a good chunk of these bands came early in the week for me.

What did stand out for me in this category was San Diego's garage-psych outfit Tropical Popsicle. Instead of falling flat, the deadpan vocal delivery of Tim Hines pulled me in and kept my attention, making me forget about my plans to leave midset. Another pleasant surprise for me was Dive, the side project of Beach Fossils guitarist Zachary Cole Smith.

But after a rather slow start to the week when schedule issues and cancellations made me abandon my original plans, things definitely picked up midweek. I spent Wednesday evening shuffling around in the rain to some seven venues. From the synth-driven pop music of Norway's Casiokids (whom I managed to sneak in on my lunch hour) to the decent public radio-friendly folk-pop of The Lighthouse and The Whaler and Lissy Trullie's alluringly husky vocals, the day was full of pleasant surprises--not the least of which was John Maus, easily one of the highlights of my week.

As I walked through the door at 285 Kent, I immediately felt as if I had gone back in time. Thick music pumped from the DIY graffiti-covered space, through clouds of cigarette smoke. On stage, Maus shook with intensity as he addressed the mass of dancing, sweaty revelers. Beneath the shambling chaos of the quick synth riffs and simple drum lines is an unhinged but triumphant quality that is intoxicating. I had heard whispered stories of Maus shows before, but I never really understood the fervor until I saw it for myself.

Thursday was also packed with a number of good finds. I somehow found myself in the 7th floor of a swanky hotel for an "acoustic" (as in not electric; not unplugged) Dum Dum Girls set (though only 2/4 band members were present). Other highlights included the seriously talented and take-your-breath-away-beautiful dreamy folk-pop of Gem Club (who just released their debut album on Hardly Art), and Brooklyn's own, Headless Horseman who make fun, glitchy, hook-laden music with inventive beats (Their song "Wavlngth" was seriously one of my favorites all week.)

Friday, my band-count escalated rapidly, thanks to the BV day showcase at Public Assembly, which essentially had two bands playing each hour. I knocked out a few of the hyped bands in this fashion, including Chelsea Wolfe and Gauntlet Hair. (I also stepped over to Cameo briefly to catch a few adrenaline-packed songs from the Brooklyn duo Hunters.) With her beautifully haunting (but not annoying operatic) vocals Chelsea Wolfe was certainly one of the more memorable acts of the week. Would she be getting as much buzz if she didn't dress like "a medival [sic] reinactment [sic] person from Medival [sic] Times" (to quote an anonymous BV commenter)? Hard to say, but I have to give the woman credit--I couldn't take my eyes off her, and she was one of the few artists I caught twice. But my surprise favorite of the day show was Young Magic. Hip-hop and dark electro-pop may be unlikely bedfellows, but they sure make for quite an interesting pair. These guys are a force.

Other highlights of the day included the eye-catching electro-pop duo Purity Ring (love the name) and one of my favorite SXSW finds from earlier this year, Sea of Bees. At Webster Hall, Purity Ring's bass was so powerful at times that I almost forgot to breathe. Though the band relies on a lot of samples to craft their sound, they are far more interesting to watch due to their onstage chemistry and mysterious gold-piped instrument. Though nothing alike, my other favorite artist of the evening was Sea of Bees. Singer/songwriter Julie Baeziger's genuinely sweet demeanor and earnest acoustic performance are always a pleasant change of pace from the more aloof, laptop-driven artists that seem to sprout with the speed and frequency of mushrooms.

The week concluded not with a bang (I was turned away at the door of Brooklyn Bowl for Unknown Mortal Orchestra, whom I had hoped to end on), but with more of a slow fade-out. Forced to change my schedule at the last minute, I caught a few acts nearby, including Delicate Steve (how those five people were working from the same set list was a mystery at times given the haphazard nature of their sound, but it was fun to watch them put it all together), Races (pleasant and charming), Bleached, and about four minutes of the Kopecky Family Band (fun!) before hopping on the L and calling it a week.

So how does this year's CMJ stack up? Most people I spoke with seemed unimpressed. No doubt, the growth of SXSW--especially over the past few years--seems to have sucked some of the life out of CMJ. (It's hard to compete with free tacos, 76-degree days, and the compact nature of downtown Austin.) But like a hipster chick desperately scouring the racks at Beacon's Closet, I like the challenge of the frenzied search. There's good stuff in there hiding among the dross. You just have to look a bit harder.

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Pictures in this post are from day parties at Pianos (We Listen for You) and Public Assembly (Under the Radar) on Wednesday. More of them below...

The hip hop artist is one of 65+ new artists being officially added to the lineup of this year's Northside Festival (June 16-19 in various venues across Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY). Here's the full list: